The Enemy of Good
by Hawki
Summary: Oneshot: There was a terran saying that perfect was the enemy of good. It was a saying that for much of their history, the zerg had never followed in their quest for perfection. But now, with the Swarm divided between Zagara and Niadra, what path would they follow?


**The Enemy of Good**

The planet didn't have a name.

Or at least, it didn't have a name to the zerg. The terrans might have a name for this piece of rock hanging in the void. The protoss might have one as well. For all Niadra knew, the xel'naga themselves might have given name to this barren wasteland, and who could say how many other lesser species who had escaped the gravity wells of their homeworlds had found their way here? Nevertheless, to her, to the zerg, the planet was nameless. It was one of trillions of worlds orbiting billions of stars in this galaxy, and the only reason that she was here at all was to see where the course of this war would head. To meet her enemy face to face.

There was something so primitive about that, the True Queen of the Zerg reflected. She ruled her swarm. Her control reached across light years, from queens and overlords, down to the lowliest drone, and as far as the mightiest ultralisk. She could have conducted this meeting from across the void and serve her swarm, serve her race, just as well. But of course, she reflected, as she looked across the dusty sands of this rock, that wasn't the way of the overqueen. The False Queen. The one called Zagara, who sullied the name of the zerg. The one whom she could see approaching her, walking across the sands, a pair of hunter killers guiding her, and an army a hundred metres behind her back. Niadra hissed, and her emotions must have started a feedback loop, because the two hunter killers at her side hissed as well. Throughout her swarm, she could feel her own emotions reflected back at her. Resentment. Hatred. Fear.

"And so we meet," Zagara said. She stopped walking and looked down at Niadra. "Upon the sands of S'cor'ze, the usurper meets the queen."

To an outsider, even one for whom telepathy came as natural as breathing, it would have appeared that the two queens were just standing there in silence. Even if a son or daughter of Aiur had been present, they would not have picked up the individual thought patterns of the two queens, only two different clouds of thought from their two swarms.

"S'cor'ze?" Niadra asked.

"The name of this place, so given by the protoss."

"And you sully your name and race even further," Niadra said. "The Overmind decreed that only ones worthy of a name would receive one, and-"

"The Overmind is dead," Zagara hissed. "And if I desired it, you would be so as well."

Niadra involuntarily recoiled – the resentment, the hatred, they could be explained by one truth. The one that she beheld, that Zagara was leading the zerg down a path that had never been intended for them. But the fear came from another truth, namely that Zagara controlled the bulk of the Swarm, and if it came to a fight, her own would be quickly overwhelmed.

"I suppose you are glad that the Overmind has left this world," Niadra continued. "The Great Eye would weep, seeing what you have done."

"My existence is not from the Overmind, but the Queen of Blades. I follow her orders."

"The orders of one who left me to die." Niadra walked up to Zagara. "Her last directive – destroy the protoss. I have followed her wishes."

"How so?" Zagara asked. "At Adena? When you broke the peace between the zerg and the other races?"

"_Peace_," Niadra hissed. "That is your path, sister, is it not? Peace?"

"It was my queen's wish."

"And as a slave, you follow it." Niadra looked around the wastelands of this planet, this "S'cor'ze." "Do you know what peace is? Peace is stagnation. Peace is death. Peace is waiting for blade and fire to come for your neck, as a stronger species comes to supplant you." With a clawed hand, she gestured to the two broods assembled here – each of them loyal to their own queen, all of their number bred to be the deadliest creatures in the galaxy. "Once, we understood this. The Overmind understood this. The Queen of Blades even understood this. Even your own evolution master understood this, and only with the aid of lesser species did you uncover his treachery before the zerg could be saved."

"I have saved the zerg," Zagara said. "I am the overqueen. I rule over the mightiest species in the galaxy, freed from the shackles of gods and mortals alike."

"You have doomed them to stagnation," Niadra said.

"You have doomed us to war."

"At Adena?" Niadra hissed. "I gave you purpose again. I awoke a storm so that you would be forced to swim."

"And if we drown?"

"Then you are obviously unfit to be overqueen."

The two of them stood there. Two queens, two armies, two swarms. Question was, Niadra reflected, what happened next?

"I will give you this chance," Zagara said. "Surrender your swarm to me. Bring your brood into my fold, and you will take a place among the broodmothers."

Niadra supposed she got her answer.

"Fail this, and you will see that fury is still the birthright of the zerg."

"Birthright," Niadra hissed. "Our birthright was to chase perfection. Our birthright was to sail through the stars. Our birthright was to-"

"A birthright founded on chains and lies," Zagara said. "And what did the pursuit of perfection give us? What is perfection, if not the enemy of good?"

Niadra's eyes blazed. "You are lost," she said. "The Queen of Blades had so much terran left in her, and now, you've embraced that rather than cast the tumour out."

"I was at the queen's side. I helped her topple an emperor, then topple a god. Who are you to her?" Zagara drew herself up. "Who are you to _me_?"

"The one who will dethrone you."

"With so small an army?"

"The Queen of Blades overthrew the second Overmind to become queen. I too can be the usurper." She took some steps forward, her four legs carrying her bulk to the creature that was half as tall again as her. "If you wish for a second Brood War, then you shall have it."

"No," Zagara said.

"No?"

"No. I wish for you to die."

Zagara's hunter killers moved in. But Niadra's struck first. One barrelled for Zagara's bodyguards, the other opened fire on the queen herself. Zagara screeched as the spines impacted her carapace, or in a few cases, breached it. Niadra could sense her desires through what was left of the psychic link that had bound them. She knew that Zagara, the False Queen, wanted nothing more than to tear apart her would-be usurper with her claws. But that right now, she had to eliminate the hunter killers first.

Which suited Niadra fine. Her legs carried her across the desert sands before a nydus worm burst out of the ground. Out of its gaping maw came a horde of zerglings, joining the charge of her brood to meet Zagara's charging forces. Into the maw went Niadra. The True Queen. The Usurper. The one who would follow the tunnel created by the creature to transport off this world.

_I'm coming for you, Zagara. And when your blood feeds my claws, you will remember this day._

Her brood would die here today, but it mattered not. She had more. The zerg always had more. The zerg could be chained as a race, but never eradicated. One drone, one larva, that was all it took to rebuild. And be it a year, ten, a hundred, Zagara's chains would be broken. The zerg would be made free.

Thus began the Second Brood War.


End file.
